More prose than poetry, but Dublin write their own script
The margins were fine, the difference slim but the one point that separated these sides may as well have been 20 times that for all Mayo cared as it increased their distress to despair. For all Dublin cared, it didn’t matter as long as it read in their favour.
It might be considered Jim Gavin emulated Brian Cody. Just as Walter Walsh and Kieran Joyce had claimed replays man of the match awards having not started in the drawn matches of 2012 and ’14 respectively, it was Michael Fitzsimons who came out of the blue to claim the award Saturday. That view, though, would overlook how disappointing Paddy Andrews and Paul Mannion were having come in for Bernard Brogan and Michael Darragh Macauley.
And yet that didn’t matter. Dublin overcame as Gavin would have expected. As Gavin would have demanded. A photograph at full-time in last year’s All-Ireland final showed him unmoved as selector Mick Deegan celebrated behind him. Here he was just as impassive but calculating. In Dublin’s Gibson Hotel base yesterday, he chatted with his friend and former Irish Institute of Sport director Gary Keegan. It was difficult not to believe he was already plotting ahead for 2017. Stephen Cluxton’s comment on RTÉ on Saturday night, that players would be receiving a phone-call from their manager, provided fodder for that.
You want Gavin to be happier but he’s never going to be something anyone else wants but himself. Ask him what gave him most satisfaction this year and his answer was typically measured: “I suppose yesterday. Yesterday was the pinnacle, you need to get the guys to perform. I have to say to the players’ credit no matter the outcome of any of the games they have always have gone after the process of that performance and that is how they measure themselves. If they get trophies afterwards that is an added bonus.”
Thirty-five kilometres south-west of Gavin in Mayo’s CityWest Hotel, the Sam Maguire Cup would have been received with no end of appreciation but there would be no romance. The goalkeeping call, the bizarre ones made by Maurice Deegan in the first half — they will grate Mayo as the nights grew longer. So too will the cold reality cast a shadow on them that they didn’t perform once again. All their forwards could muster from play was three points and one of them came from a sweeper.
Their bench didn’t ignite as Dublin’s did. Barry Moran did win a scored free but was otherwise a peripheral figure. Stephen Coen performed dutifully in Lee Keegan’s stead but replacing him was an onerous ask. Conor O’Shea was on the ball plenty of times but couldn’t make much inroads.
As was the case in the drawn affair, Dublin’s auxiliaries outshone them but even more so. Cormac Costello’s three scores were delightful, Brogan’s one a touch of class and Michael Darragh Macauley assisted three. Gavin certainly did nothing to dissuade the argument that a team should try to finish a game with its best players on the field. Scores from Dublin’s substitutes had noticeably dipped this year but it wasn’t going to alter Gavin’s thinking.
“I certainly noticed the stat alright but they’re playing against a super team like Mayo. Their defensive system is so robust over the last two games but any time, even down in Castlebar in the National League this year, the two games last year, they’re just really, really good defenders so it is difficult to score out there.
“But, again, what’s impressed me with this group is they buy into the collective and the players who didn’t get to start who started the last day, Bernard, Michael Darragh and David Byrne, they were disappointed they weren’t starting but they all accept and their culture is the team ethos and their strength is the sum of their parts and as they always say themselves, whatever part they’re asked to play, they’ll just give it their all so I’m delighted for the guys who came in.
“I thought David did very well when he came in for Johnny (Cooper). Michael Darragh did exceptionally well, broke the gain line really hard and asked questions of the Mayo defence. Bernard clipped in with a point, obviously Cormac with his three. Eric Lowndes played a really solid game at left half-back. He’s been unfortunate he hasn’t got more game time and then to see Darren Daly coming on and getting that great block, as he’s done in the past. He got one in ‘13 as well. It just shows their mindset, that they’re playing there for each other.”
Dublin’s half-time lead — 0-10 to 1-6 — was the margin at the end, four worse than it was at the interval in the first match but here it looked a sounder advantage. They lead 0-4 to 0-0 after seven minutes as they punished poor Mayo kick-outs and discipline and while they were reeled back in they pushed away again.
The first half, though, was pockmarked by a combination of nastiness and remarkable decisions. John Small should have been black-carded in the eighth minute like Jason Doherty for his foul on Cooper after Keegan’s 18th minute goal. Small was again fortunate to stay on the field for a red card contender at the close of the half and Connolly for a black card offence in the same movement. Instead, it was Cooper and Keegan who made way for debatable infringements.
Keegan’s goal, emanating from a Seamus O’Shea pass into his brother Aidan who had ghosted behind Philly McMahon to show in front of Cian O’Sullivan, had brought the Mayo support in the 82,249 to their feet. But only two scores followed from their team before half-time, both Cillian O’Connor frees.
Connolly, free of Keegan, goaled in the 42nd minute when from the penalty spot he punished Hennelly’s foul on Andrews. Just like 2013, Hennelly had failed to negotiate a Paul Flynn ball and the ramifications were massive both personally and collectively.
Dublin went ahead and never looked back.
After Costello fouled Patrick Durcan, O’Connor did have that additional time chance from a tricky distance to trigger extra-time but turned it wide. And so it was that Mayo were denied again and Dublin victorious in a fifth straight All-Ireland final.
Gavin’s cool demeanour belied it but he was chuffed. “To see them going through that cycle over the last two weeks where they’ve been asked so many questions in the drawn game, the Kerry game and the Donegal game and throughout all the league campaigns and a lot of their success is based on that failure piece within games, that you never get the perfect. You can’t reach it, but their continuous strive for excellence is what has always impressed me about them. I’m sure it’s the same in most inter-county teams.”
Not really. Dublin are deadly different.
D. Rock (0-9, 7 frees); D. Connolly (1-1, 1-0 pen); C. Costello (0-3); K. McManamon, B. Brogan (0-1 each).
C. O’Connor (0-9, frees); L. Keegan (1-0); P. Durcan (0-2); A. Moran, D. O’Connor, K. McLoughlin (0-1 each).
S. Cluxton (c); P. McMahon, J. Cooper, M. Fitzsimons; J. McCarthy, C. O’Sullivan, J. Small; B. Fenton, P. Flynn; D. Connolly, C. Kilkenny, P. Andrews; P. Mannion, D. Rock, K. McManamon.
D. Byrne for J. Cooper (black, 20); B. Brogan for P. Andrews (47); M.D. Macauley for P. Mannion (52); C. Costello for K. McManamon (57); E. Lowndes for J. Small (60); D. Daly for C. O’Sullivan (inj 70+2).
R. Hennelly; K. Higgins, B. Harrison; K. McLoughlin; P. Durcan, C. Boyle, L. Keegan; S. O’Shea, D. Vaughan; D. O’Connor, A. O’Shea, T. Parsons; J. Doherty; A. Moran, C. O’Connor (c).
S. Coen for L. Keegan (black, 35+2); B. Moran for T. Parsons (blood, 35+9-HT); C. O’Shea for D. Vaughan (inj HT); D. Clarke for R. Hennelly (black, 40); B. Moran for A. Moran (55); A. Dillon for J. Doherty (60); C. Barrett for C. Boyle (70+2).
M. Deegan (Laois).
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